Ching expects call to national team despite inactivity

Ching expects call to national team campU.S. coach to pick 30 players for World Cup

JOSE DE JESUS ORTIZ, Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Monday, May 10, 2010

Photo: Bob Levey, AP

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Brian Ching is practicing again after straining his left hamstring April 1.

Brian Ching is practicing again after straining his left hamstring April 1.

Photo: Bob Levey, AP

Ching expects call to national team despite inactivity

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

A day before all 32 teams must submit provisional rosters to FIFA for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Dynamo forward Brian Ching was optimistic about being one of the 30 players chosen by U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley.

Ching, who hasn’t played in a match since suffering a left hamstring strain April 1, has been monitored by Bradley’s coaching and training staffs since he was hurt against Real Salt Lake. A member of the U.S. team that went to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Ching is confident he’ll be on Bradley’s roster.

“I’m 90 percent sure I’ll get called in,” he said, “but you never know.”

Bradley called Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear last week to discuss Ching’s status, although the two haven’t spoken since.

“I’m sure he has a lot of things on his mind,” Kinnear said of Bradley. “His training staff is working with our training staff to get all the information pushed around. His trainer came out to our practice to take a look at Brian. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

One of the U.S. national team trainers attended the Dynamo training sessions Thursday and Friday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., to monitor Ching.

Ching, who also has been recovering from a left calf injury he suffered in late April, was available on the bench Saturday for the first time since he hurt his hamstring. After a brief pregame chat, Kinnear left Ching on the bench in a match the Dynamo dominated.

By then, the U.S. national team training staff had a grasp of Ching’s status after monitoring him in training and exchanging information with the Dynamo.

“They just wanted to make sure that I was OK out there on the field and not hobbling around,” Ching said of the U.S. trainer’s visit to practice. “I got through that OK. I think that because the game was going the way it did Dom didn’t feel like he wanted to risk me playing too soon. Another two days off, I guess, really helped. To be honest, I feel great today. Everything except for my lungs.”

Ching joked about his wind after putting himself through extra running drills.

The players selected will report to Princeton this weekend for a training camp before Bradley trims his roster to 23 on June 1.